Design: Building on Country makes the case that Aboriginal design principles — refined across millennia through the Dreaming, Country, and community — are not historical artefacts but a living foundation for a genuinely Australian design ethos.
About This Book
Aboriginal design has always been sophisticated: the aerodynamic geometry of the boomerang, the engineering intelligence of fish traps, the spatial logic of settlement layouts that actively reinforce social cohesion. Alison Page and Paul Memmott trace these principles — function, sustainability, and storytelling operating as a unified whole — and demonstrate how they are being applied in contemporary practice. This is not a survey of historical objects but an argument for transformation: that Australian design, to be truly responsive to place, must engage with the knowledge systems embedded in Country. Essential reading for architects, designers, and anyone invested in what an authentic Australian design culture might become.
Key Features
- 228 pages tracing Aboriginal design principles from ancient practice to contemporary application
- Authors: Alison Page & Paul Memmott
- Published by Thames & Hudson Australia, ISBN 9781760761400
What You'll Discover
- How Aboriginal design principles of function, sustainability, and storytelling operate as an integrated system rather than discrete concerns
- The design intelligence embedded in objects and structures such as boomerangs, fish traps, and community settlements
- How ancient practices grounded in Country and the Dreaming are being translated into contemporary design disciplines
- A provocation toward a new Australian design ethos — one that responds to the essence of Country and its people rather than imported traditions
About the Author
Alison Page is a designer and broadcaster of Aboriginal heritage whose work engages with Indigenous knowledge systems and contemporary design practice. Paul Memmott is a researcher and academic with extensive expertise in Aboriginal architecture and settlements. Together they bring complementary perspectives — cultural, historical, and practical — to the question of what building on Country means today.
Specifications
- Format: Paperback
- Pages: 228
- Dimensions: 196 x 131 mm
- Language: English
- ISBN: 9781760761400
- Publisher: Thames & Hudson Australia
- Publication Date: [Details available upon request]
Perfect For: Architects and designers seeking to engage seriously with Indigenous design principles, students of Australian architecture and material culture, and practitioners working on Country-responsive or First Nations projects.